The present invention relates to an information image synthesizing and copying method.
The information image synthesizing and copying method is a method of synthesizing information image .alpha. of original I and information image .beta. of original II and copying the synthesized information images .alpha. and .beta. on one copying sheet C as shown in FIG. 1. This method serves to save the material necessary for copying and is useful for information processing.
Conventionally, in one method of making synthesized copies, an original whose non-image portions are transparent is employed as the original I or the original II, and the original I and the original II are superimposed and copied. In another method, a latent electrostatic image corresponding to the original I and a latent electrostatic image corresponding to the original II are formed on two separate photoconductors and those latent electrostatic images are transferred to a recording sheet and the transferred latent electrostatic images are developed. In a further method, the latent electrostatic image of the original I is formed on one photoconductor and the electrostatic latent image is transferred to a recording sheet and the latent electrostatic image of the original II is formed on the same photoconductor and the electrostatic latent image is transferred to the same recording paper, and the transferred latent electrostatic images are developed.
The first method has a shortcoming that a special transparent original is required as the original I or the original II. The second method requires two photoconductors and the copying apparatus employing this method is complicated in the mechanism. In the third method, a process of the formation of the latent electrostatic image and transfer thereof has to be repeated two times, which reduces the copying efficiency.